


Always One Step Ahead

by KashaRin



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: It's spelled Ouma, Ouma's better at planning ahead, chapter 5 redux, i don't know how to tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-07-15 21:58:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16072163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KashaRin/pseuds/KashaRin
Summary: A true Supreme Leader will never die; he's always too far ahead of the curve to fall down. It's not like his original plan involved his death, that'd be crazy.Summaries are hard.





	1. Planning Ahead

**Author's Note:**

> Hurray, it's time for my first AO3 fic. This is an idea I've had tucked away for a while now, but for some reason every time I went to write it down properly I just hit a wall. But regardless of my inability to budget time, it's here now so there we go. Hope you enjoy!

"Kaito, can you hear me!? Quick! Drink this antidote!" Harukawa shouted desperately through the small window of the hangar bathroom, where she could see the astronaut sitting in obvious pain. Unbeknownst to her, however, their adversary was standing just out of view in the same bathroom, waiting for his moment to strike. As Momota reached weakly for the antidote, his hopes were dashed when it was snatched away by the mastermind that had caused them all so much strife, complete with a pained version of his usual mocking grin. "Sorry... But I can't die here. Since I’m… the mastermind of this killing game…" Ouma began, though if either of the others were in a fit state to notice, his tone almost sounded genuinely apologetic, a stark contrast to the constant lies they had come to know from him.

"Wait! There’s only one antido–" The assassin outside was cut off was cut off by the ultimate leader, who had already prematurely guessed what she was about to say. "Oh… you don’t have to worry about Momota. He fulfilled his dream, right? He already… went to space." Ouma let out a dry, humorless chuckle, once again strikingly different from his usual mocking demeanor. He almost seemed to be laughing at himself rather than them. Momota tried to sit up, putting what felt like an immense amount of strength into his limbs as he tried in vain to stand and face the supreme leader properly. "Tch... Dammit!" He yelled, as the other boy began to raise the antidote bottle to his lips. 

"S-Stop!" The assassin commanded, barely managing to see Ouma's hand raise to his mouth through the small window. But she didn't need to see it to know what he was doing; taking away Momota's last chance at survival by drinking the antidote for himself. Words failed her as the gravity of the situation finally fell upon her. Momota was going to die. It was all her fault. She was going to die too, because she killed him. The first person she'd allowed herself to open up to since childhood, and she'd killed him. "Phew! I feel so much better! I guess that’s a wrap… …or maybe not. Because now another class trial is going to start." Ouma's gloating was not helping her in the slightest, her mind struggling to keep up with everything. It was very likely that she was in shock, which she vaguely registered. 

"Class Trial...?" She repeated back in a daze, her mind flashing back to that disgusting courtroom of lies, doubt, and deceit, where she'd watched some of the most gruesome deaths she'd ever seen, even as an assassin. Her mind quickly conjured an image of herself in their place, increasingly violent tortures used until inevitably her lifeless body was all that remained, while Ouma would laugh in the background from his perch atop Monokuma's seat. "You’ll be the blackened for this case, y’know? The blackened who killed Momota." The supreme leader shrugged, this time no laughter escaping him. It made no difference to Harukawa; she could still hear it burned into her memory regardless.

"Shut it! Screw the class trials! Like hell am I gonna let you have your way!" As always, even in the darkest of situations Momota's voice was brimming with determination and a boundless anger towards the evils surrounding him. His yell even managed to bring Harukawa back to reality, and she quickly moved to her denial stage of loss. "Momota! Why did you protect Ouma!? If you didn’t help him, then–" Even her protests were cut off again, as both boys seemed to have a penchant for doing on that night. "I couldn’t help it… Even if it’s Ouma… I-I can’t have you kill anybody!" The assassin was taken aback by his answer, for just how... _Momota_ of him it was. Still trying to protect her lost innocence, even in the face of his own death.

"Awww… Momota wasn’t protecting me… He was protecting Harukawa! … The situation just got way worse, huh? Harukawa is gonna become the blackened responsible for killing you… all because you protected me." Ouma began with the same taunting voice as he was so known for, but again his tone dropped into a kind of melancholic retrospection. "D-don’t you worry, Harumaki. I’m not gonna die that easily… Just leave it to me. I’ll put an end to this killing game!" Momota flashed his reassuring grin to the girl, giving another of his generic pep-talks. The supreme leader even seemed to respect him for it, giving another humorless chuckle. "Ah-haha… you’re still full of energy, even like that…You really are… not boring."

The rest of the conversation went about as steady as Ouma had predicted in his head; Momota yelled for Harukawa to leave them and save herself, which she did, leaving the two alone together again at last. The supreme leader smirked mischievously, pulling out his trump-card Electrobomb to initiate the rest of his plan. He sat next to the astronaut on the ground, surprisingly gently feeding the liquid inside the antidote bottle into his mouth. Momota was too dazed to resist, from both his illness and the poison trying to kill him. Thankfully, the antidote's effect was near immediate, clearing his head considerably of the pained fog filling it. He blinked several times, staring confusedly at Ouma with an unspoken plea for an explanation. 

"...There, now you won't die yet." Was all the only response he was given. Propping himself up on the wall, Ouma shakily made his way towards the door, to a questionable destination that Momota felt that he needed to follow him to. The astronaut curiously trailed the other boy, watching as he stopped at a seemingly inconspicuous panel at the wall, only to remove it completely and reveal a compartment within. Ouma leaned into the hole in the wall, pulling out two similar-looking bottles and drinking the entirety of one in a weak motion. He then opened the other, and poured its' contents carefully into the first, putting the now-full bottle back where it came from. 

"What the hell are you doing?" Momota asked, still midway between confusion and anger. The supreme leader seemed even to jump a little bit, as though he'd not noticed that the boy was standing there at all. The astronaut could somewhat relate, at least; the Strike-9 poison really slowed down his brain too when it had been in effect, to the point where he'd barely noticed Ouma enter the bathroom the second time either. "A true supreme leader always stays two steps ahead; and you're going to help me with my next plan." To which the astronaut felt nothing but more confusion. "Plan? What plan?" Momota felt a wave of suspicion and dread wash through him; the mastermind was going to use him to help with a 'plan' of his... nothing about this seemed okay. But on the other hand, a part of him felt that he owed it to Ouma to at the very least hear him out, after having been saved (if he could even call it that) by him.

"I've been thinking this whole time... of a plan to throw the mastermind off-guard." He began, still needing to prop himself to the wall to stay upright. The explanation only gave Momota more questions than answers, however; but one of which was foremost among them. "Throw off the mastermind? But _you're_ the mastermind!" The astronaut yelled, a bit louder than he'd meant to, at which Ouma shrugged his shoulders slightly, wincing in pain as he did. "Oh, that... I was lying. I'm not the mastermind, I just had to pretend to be to fool you all." The leader seemed entirely nonchalant about the reveal, but Momota was reeling from the rollercoaster of information and emotion this night was turning out to be. "Pretended!? Why the hell would you do that!?"

Ouma laughed again, but was interrupted by a cough much similar to the astronaut's afflicting illness, though more likely due to the bolt wound in his abdomen. "It's no wonder you all fell for it... I prepared for a lot of stuff. Like this remote? ...I had Iruma make it for me in advance. Everything else... all to trick you into thinking I was the mastermind of this killing game. I had to do it, to end the game." The boy looked, for once in his entire life, entirely sincere. Not a shred of joy or mischief about him, just a pained exposition as he continued to bleed. "...To end it?" Momota repeated back, incredulously. Didn't Ouma supposedly love the killing game...? Though, upon further thought, he _had_ managed to prevent anyone from being stable enough to kill for at least several days, which was unfortunately the longest amount of time they'd ever gone without another murder.

"I thought if I showed you the despairing truth, you guys wouldn’t want to go outside anymore… I thought it would end the killing game." The boy shifted to stare directly into Momota's eyes, looking enraged at something beyond the astronaut's current level of comprehension. "Why do you think this happened? Why do you think Harukawa tried to kill me? Why do you think the killing game started again?" He asked heatedly, letting out a huff as he allowed his anger to leave him again. It wasn't good for his quickly deteriorating health to get so tense. "Because the real mastermind made a move behind our backs, again. They're manipulating everything from behind the scenes, I'm sure of it. But I've got a plan to throw them off." He finished, taking a deep breath and letting Momota take in his explanation thus far. 

"So... The true mastermind was the one manipulating Harukawa's actions?" The astronaut said after a moment of thinking. If that really was the case, then... he really didn't have much choice but to go with Ouma's plan, whatever it was. It's not like he had long to live anyway, given his rapidly worsening illness. "...What do you want me to do." Momota ignored his own previous question, and moved on to Ouma's plan after another pause. The supreme leader gave an unsettling and incredibly morbid smile upon hearing his answer. "It's pretty easy: I just need you to kill me. Nishishishi..."

The taller boy recoiled in shock at the command, staring at him in utter bewilderment. He _wanted_ to be killed!? What the hell was Ouma's deal!? "What!? No way; I can't kill you, even if it's to stop the mastermind!" Momota yelled defiantly, taking the shoulder of the leader's non-injured arm and shaking him. The boy laughed again, this time able to hold back a coughing fit from his bloodied lungs. Once his humor had subsided, he moved the other's hand from his shoulder, amused expression still on his face. "I thought you'd react like that. Don't worry, my dear Momo-chan~; that was just plan A. I've got a much better one in store now." Ouma once again reached into the hole in the wall, this time taking out several bags filled with a familiar red liquid. 

"We're gonna fake one of our deaths with these. I knocked out Monokuma's cameras, so it'll be a complete mystery as to who the killer or victim really is. Then, when they reach a verdict and Monokuma has to answer, we both come out and render the whole thing pointless." Again, the supreme leader needed to take a breath, rephrasing his statement in layman's terms so even Momota could understand it (he felt like the other had already understood, but a little patronization never hurt). "Basically, we're gonna crush these blood bags in the hydraulic press to make it look like one of us died. When Monokuma doesn't know who the killer is, the game can't function. We're gonna win by not playing."

The astronaut thought over his plan for a moment, nodding along with the breakdown of it all. It was kind of genius, actually; he didn't give Ouma enough credit usually. He knew his sidekicks would figure things out anyway, but either way the plan had no fallout. There'd be no grounds to execute anyone if there was no murder. "That's... Actually a great idea. See, I knew you could do a lot of good if you tried to be helpful!" Momota gave a fond thumbs-up motion with his signature grin, happy to have actually gotten something good out of the leader for once.

The two quickly got to work (as quickly as two dying boys could go, in any case), forging a bloodied trail from the bathroom, flushing Ouma's shirt down the strangely steampunk-looking toilet, and setting up the camera for the hydraulic press trick. The ultimate leader was sure to tell Momota to keep his arm to his side, so that his sudden absence from the press wouldn't be noticed once the angle concealed him. In either of the boys' places, Ouma had placed his collected bags of blood on the press, resulting in a bloodsplatter roughly equal to what they would have caused. He was a bit ashamed as to where he'd gotten the blood, but on the other hand it wasn't as though Iruma or Gokuhara had needed it after he got them both killed. _(Don't think about it Don't think about it Don't think about it Don't think about it)_ Once the video was taken, the astronaut tore out the press' power cable as Ouma grabbed a strange spray-bottle looking device from his wall space, and both of them climbed into the cockpit of the Exisal Harukawa had so generously left there for them. 

In spite of his mind screaming not to fall asleep with Momota still awake, as he could still ruin everything, Ouma honestly didn't care anymore. He was exhausted, having stayed up already for a solid seventy two hours working out his plan in every possible nuance. Ironic, given that his script book was proven useless upon his better plan surfacing. Tiredly, the supreme leader looked over to the other boy, who seemed just as tired as he was. The leader vaguely registered moving his own hand to activate the BugVac and keep them concealed. The next thing either of them knew, the exhaustion of the night as well as the physical strain of their bodies had somewhat unwillingly thrust them both into a dreamless sleep, to remain that way until the trial announcement in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not 100% happy with this chapter, but overall I think it went better than my first few drafts. Maybe by chapter 2 time I'll be in less of a writing slump, who knows. Thanks to my friend Kay for helpin proofread it. Anyway, thanks for reading this chapter to the end! Hope you liked it!  
> And something else that I don't think is mentioned; the hole in the wall is basically Ouma's collection of contingency plans for when his plan inevitably was thwarted. Inside it is an antidote for several different poisons from Saihara's office (not just Strike-9, there was no way for him to know which would be used), blood bags taken from the bodies of Iruma and Gokuhara (as well as some from himself, but he'll never admit that). The BugVac, so that no cameras can view his collection, as well as several other currently unrelated things.


	2. Tricks and Trials

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a good day for a mind-boggling trial to begin.

Ouma woke with a start to the sound of Yumeno's scream, though he was quick to catch himself before he could make too much noise inside the Exisal. It was more cramped than he'd expected, and it was almost certain that he'd have a major crick in his back by the trial's end. Aside from the crossbow wound, anyway. Thankfully, the Space-Idiot slept like a rock, and he hadn't even stirred to the sound. The body discovery announcement played as he'd expected, and all of the other remaining survivors were handed out a Monokuma File. The leader wasn't able to see it for himself, but judging by the comments he could overhear, it was rather barren of information. Internally, he let out an amused giggle, seeing as his plan appeared to be going smoothly.

The investigation was over quickly, with half the participants refusing to even do anything to examine the scene. As usual, Saihara was left to do all of the work. Yet another reason Ouma never liked being helpful to them; when the others found someone with a shred of intelligence, they latched onto them and did what they could to bleed them dry of charity. He felt somewhat bad for the detective, for having to deal with it all on his own-- Stop right there, Kokichi Ouma, now is not the time to get sentimental. When Monokuma called them all to the trial grounds, the leader finally decided it was time to wake Momota up. It was time to begin the real show! 

The astronaut shifted and let out a groan of discomfort as he was shaken awake, until his eyes shot open in panic momentarily, scanning his unfamiliar surroundings with confusion. Quickly, though, the events of the previous night seemed to return to him, and he relaxed. "Morning, sleepyhead." The smaller boy whispered sarcastically, but before Momota could respond, from outside the Exisal the shrill and obnoxious voice of Monokuma rang out angrily. 

"I dunno what your game here is, Ouma, but don't think for a second that you're excused from the trial! Move it, it's time!" It jumped up and down, angrily waving its' paws with claws bared. The leader pushed the microphone button from within the Exisal, easily slipping back into his normal persona. 

"Nishishi~, alright. But, one request oh great Monokuma; to make this trial more interesting, I'd like to stay in this Exisal. It'd be ever so boooring if I got there and Harumaki just killed me immediately, y'know?" Despite being in the cockpit and covered from view, the mischievous sparkle in his eyes could practically be felt through his tone alone. The bear seemed to think over his suggestion for a few moments, making an exaggerated _hmmmm_ noise for the duration. The leader turned off the microphone for a moment just to let out an annoyed groan at his behavior, having had more than enough of Monokuma for a lifetime. 

"Alright, fine. But this'd better be an interesting trial!" Seemingly satisfied with their conclusion, Monokuma turned and began to exit the Exisal, grumbling something under its' breath about putting up with amateurs. It was kind of hard to hear it from all the way inside the Exisal, but neither of the boys really cared about what it had to complain about. 

Ouma activated the speech mechanism again, choosing his words very carefully as he forced a laugh. "Trust me, this is gonna be the most **unique** trial you've ever seen!"

\---

Through a bit of trial and error, the boys managed to pilot the Exisal towards the trial grounds in a joint effort. It took them longer than Ouma had expected, and by the time they'd made it to the large door, Monokuma had just announced that they'd be coming in. Once the door had opened, the microphone was passed to Momota, and the game was afoot. Immediately, everyone went into uproar about their appearance, no one having any idea what to make of it. "Haha, whoops! My bad. Seems like I gave you guys a scare, huh?" It pained the astronaut to see them all in such disarray, but for once he had to agree with Ouma that there was no chance to console them properly. For this to work, he needed to work against his own personality.

"Momota...?"

"Is that... Momota's voice!?"

"What's going on here?" Their confusion was only getting worse and more evident, several of them talking over each other at once with their exclamations.

"There was a lot going on, so i just hid in an Exisal and kinda dozed off. Haha, and that’s why I’m so late! Anyway, what’s goin’ on, guys?" None of that was technically a lie, which raised Momota's spirits somewhat. As long as he didn't have to outright lie to his friends, he could at least tell himself that he was doing the right thing. Once he'd spoken, though, Ouma was quick to snatch the microphone back from him, cutting off another one of Shirogane's plain and boring statements of the obvious.

"Idiots! That was just a lie! Ah-haha, you guys thought I died!? I would never! Nuh-uh, no way!" Again, even in the cover of the Exisal, his extravagant gestures were ever-present, the leader holding out his arms in a self-presentational fashion. Momota got a soft laugh out of looking at him while he spoke. He almost looked like a kid playing pretend, and laying it on almost a little too thick.

"You're such a dork, dude." The astronaut said jokingly once the mic was once again off. Ouma just gave him a wink, doing a finger-guns motion in his direction before focusing back on the task at hand. That was definitely not an interaction either of them ever expected to have with each other, let alone in the middle of a trial.

"I knew it..."

"Aw, seriously!?"

"O-Ouma?"

"That was in poor taste, even for you." The resounding cry of disdain at the leader's introduction filled the courtroom, with a sense of tense resentment that could practically be cut with a knife with how thick it was. _Somehow_ even more so than when he'd last seen them, which surprised him. The boy shrugged it off, chalking it up to the fact that they thought he'd just killed their friend. Though, in the back of his mind, the thing that Harukawa had called him last night wriggled in his brain, taunting him in how he had no idea what it meant. It certainly had something to do with her actions on that night, but he couldn't even begin to guess what the mastermind had shown them.

"Wooow, tough crowd. Too bad you're the last of humanity; I had whole legions of fans waaay better than you, y'know." Ouma shrugged nonchalantly, and even Saihara shot him a glare this time. Seeing such a passive detective hold so much disdain for him was a bit jarring, really; normally he was the most logically-driven, rather than outright hateful. Though, the other boy's statement at the end of Gokuhara's trial was brought once again to the front of his mind. (Seriously, where had all this Saihara adoration come from? Stop that, Ouma, not the time for sentiment!)

"Your Remnant friends can't cheer for you any more, Ouma. You're on your own." Harukawa's icy stare pierced the cockpit, once again going on about something that made absolutely no sense to either of them. Yeah, he was alone, big shock. But then there was that word again; Remnant. She'd used it the night prior as well, a "Remnant of Despair", as she'd called him, but that term had no discernible meaning. Everyone seemed to absolutely hate them though, whatever they were. Enough to think Ouma was one of them, even.

"Remnant...?" The leader mumbled back, not even realizing that he still had the microphone on as he said it. As hard as he tried to figure out what it could be, it all came up blank. Not enough information, not enough time, not enough anything. It frustrated him to no end. "Eh, whatever. Let's get this trial rolling already! Who d'ya think the culprit is, huh?" Ouma quickly changed the subject, not willing to linger on it any longer. 

"The killer could only be you, Ouma. You can't lie your way out of things this time." Harukawa snapped back quickly, almost too much so. She seemed more eager than usual to end the trial, like she was going after him in particular rather than trying to find the culprit. The supreme leader thought back to the night prior, and what he'd said to her from the bathroom, the assassin's goals finally made clear to him. She thought she was the culprit, so she was prepared to kill everyone just to get back at him. 

"Hu-whaaaa? I'm the only one?" He asked, obviously-fake surprise overflowing from his tone. Momota rolled his eyes, getting tired of the other's shenanigans once again. Even knowing that he was trying to do good things for them, the astronaut couldn't get past that antagonistic attitude of his. Would it kill him to try and be nicer for a change?

"Momota was killed inside the hangar, and the only other person in the hangar who could have killed him was the mastermind; you." Kiibo spoke up next. Surprisingly, it prompted the astronaut to steal back Ouma's microphone, seemingly getting into the act finally. With a quick jump to the opposite side of the trial room, he flipped it on again, despite a confused glare from the smaller boy.

"Hey, who said I was dead? I'm Kaito Momota; Luminary of the Stars! Not even the Mastermind can keep me down!" Even though he'd been one to laugh at the supreme leader's exaggerated gestures, he couldn't help but give his own self-righteous pose from within the Exisal. Old habits die hard, he guessed. "There's kinda a situation going on, so I can't get out right now. I'll explain when I can."

"What the hell was that? Stop giving hints, it's not as clever as you think it is." Ouma scolded the other, though strangely made no move to grab at the mic again. Any damage control now would likely seem too obvious, so letting Momota do whatever the hell he was trying to do seemed like a better option. If it ended up complicating things even more, then that only served their goal.

The astronaut shrugged nonchalantly, not thinking much of it. "My sidekicks are gonna figure everything out anyway; I believe in them." Even now, he held onto his intense faith in people. It was almost astounding how simultaneously ignorant, idiotic, and inspiring it could be at the same time.

Ouma sighed, waving his hand dismissively at the other boy. If he wanted to ruin the plan, then so be it; he hadn't expected to survive last night anyway, so technically he was living off borrowed time no matter what. Not like it overall mattered; the mastermind would find some loophole, but the fact that the trial had already started meant that his plan was invariably going to succeed, given that no actual murder had occurred. 

Outside the Exisal, the other participants had been risen into the sky for their scrum debate (neither had been especially paying attention to what about; probably just the subject of who was really alive in the cockpit) , leaving the two a little time alone to work out a game plan. "Alright, here's the next phase of the plan, this is reeeeeally important. Can you handle it?" The supreme leader said, looking at Momota with a serious expression on his face.

"What is it now?" The astronaut asked, bracing himself for the worst. It wasn't like he hadn't already done things in the trial that he wasn't proud of, like helping Ouma, but if he would have to outright lie to his friends, that would be even worse.

"I need you to sit down and shut up, you're about to be dead in their minds." He answered, to which the other breathed a sigh of relief. That he could do; nothing was still better than bad. Of course, that wouldn't stop him from getting a bit stir-crazy stuck inside the Exisal doing nothing, but he'd cross that bridge when he came to it. 

The other survivors lowered down to the trial grounds once again, each looking rather unsettled by the debate which had just taken place. Except for Harukawa, of course; she looked her usual cold and uncaring self. "Hey guuuuys, welcome back! Have a nice trip up there?" Ouma joked, to which he was promptly ignored.

"We know it's you, Ouma. You're the only one who could've survived. So come out of that Exisal and face us." Saihara asserted, sounding surprisingly confident despite his usual anxious nature. That was usually the way with trials; they brought out his self-esteem more, and Ouma could admire that-- Dammit stop being so attached!

"Ding ding ding! That's right-o my beloved detective! And for such a gloriously correct answer, you get a prize!" The supreme leader giggled, and Saihara noticeably winced at the nickname given to him. Evidently he didn't like being called that anymore, for different reasons than previously. Regardless, Ouma passed the prepared video camera out from the Exisal, having Monokuma hook it up to the monitors while he explained the bit about the play and stop buttons. Astute listeners would notice the addition of a pause button right away, but he had a feeling that the others' mindsets weren't exactly fit for cluing in on small details in his dialogue. (If they were, he wouldn't be in this mess...)

"You're really sick, you know that?" The astronaut said from beside him, evidently not pleased by what the other boy was doing. He was ignored, though, in favor of laying on Ouma's act as thick as possible. 

"Here you go, definitive proof that you're right! Isn't it just the beeeest gift ever? I hope you got something good for me too!" He continued to taunt, as the video of Momota apparently being crushed was played. It was the first time he'd actually gotten to see the finished product, and he was actually rather proud of how it turned out. Nice and smooth, with only a small blip in the middle. All that was left was to sit back and watch the blame fall back on him...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took too long to write, I blame Iruma. Sorry about the wait. Again, not happy with this trial, and it got a bit cut off at the end, but I don't think cramming the full trial into one chapter would have been good for anyone. Hope it's enjoyable anyway!


End file.
